Yet another Arizona frustration...

[Capybara]

Some of you may recall my thwarted attempt to buy a nice CZ50 for $169.00 from a pawn shop in Arizona last fall. Today, I happened to be in Prescott, making my usual J&G trip to see what they had. On my way out of town, I stopped in one of the pawn shops and lo and behold, they had an immaculate Polish Makarov sitting in their case. I asked to see it and they obliged. It came with one magazine, was stamped Circle 11, and looked to have been barely used. They only wanted $279.00 for it!

Then I spied the date of manufacture and my heart dropped, it was 1969. We brought the C&R ATF catalog out and there saw that only Russian and East German Maks are C&R. Crap, I really, really wanted to buy it. I went to far to call my local SSE dealer to see if I could buy it and ship it to him for SSE, but they were closed today so I could not get a definitive answer on SSE so I had to pass on it. I know my dealer has universal SSE kits but the pawn store guy was looking for an easy sale, not a PITA deal where he would have to ship it to an FFL01 in California.

So close, yet so far. This is the third Arizona Mak I have had to pass on, so frustrating. I never see Russian or East German ones and if I did, they would not be in the area of $279.00. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if a Universal SSE kit could work on a 9x18 Makarov? I could still call them tomorrow and offer them some extra $$$ for the hassle?

[raven290]

That sucks. Did you at least get the Tokarev you were planning on at J&G?

[Capybara]

Yes sir, will post pics tomorrow. Right now it is in the belly of a plane heading home.

[19K]

Polish makarov?

Or did you mean p64?

[C&Rtrader]

Polish Makarov? pics please. Poland didn't make them, AFAIK?

Are you sure it wasn't a P64 or a P83? P64 is C&R.

If I am wrong I would love to see it.

http://makarov.com/makfaq.html

[Capybara]

19k, I have to thank you for the education. After reading your post, I did some research. The gun was price tagged and engraved as a Makarov. As my research told me, there is no such thing as a Polish Makarov. They were erroneously stamped as Makarovs for import, this was a P64 which IS C&R. Double crap, I could have educated the pawn shop and bought it.

Oh well, chalk it up to my continuing C&R education. I knew there were P64s but I have never held one in real life and since the pistol was engraved as a Makarov, I assumed it was. I am disappointed to say the least, but at least I learned something. When hunting for C&Rs, what you don't know can hurt you. Thanks.

[C&Rtrader]

The P64 is listed as C&R in the last update, not on the main ATF C&R list. This confuses shops that printed the list 5 years ago and haven't looked at it since.
Link:

https://www.atf.gov/publications/firearms/curios-relics/update-january-2009-june-2010.html

Good Luck

[Capybara]

Beat it into your heads guys, Russia, East Germany, Germany, Bulgaria and China made the only "real" Makarovs. P64s and CZ82 and 83s are not Makarovs.

[Capybara]

Yep, just saw that too. FWIW, most pawn stores don't even know what an FFL03 is, you need to bring it and educate them. I think they would have sold it to me, but I didn't want to get them or myself into trouble.

[19K]

Yea that confused me. I picked mine up at turners about 2 yeas ago. It's a great little pistol

[knucklehead0202]

doh! doh! oh well, that's the beauty of this silly hobby, you're never done learning things. good luck capy, you'll get 'em all eventually.